TO determine if its pool of trained manpower is up to par, the Armed Forces has started mustering all its reserve units in Metro Manila.
“As our operations against terrorist groups and other lawless elements continue to intensify, our reservists must remain steadfast, dependable and ready to be deployed any time,” the Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief, Col. Edgard Arevalo, said in a statement on Monday.
Mustering started last Saturday and it was spearheaded by the Armed Forces’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Reservists and Retiree Affairs (J-9).
Initially, 112 officers and 555 enlisted personnel in National Capital Region reported in the mustering process.
Arevalo said these figures are expected to increase once mustering goes into high gear.
Mustering will determine the present status of the operational readiness and the responsiveness of the reserve force.
“Our reservists are not only force multipliers, but also our partners in various nonlethal military operations and activities that contribute to nation-building and national well-being,” he added.
Armed Forces data indicate that for the first quarter of 2017, there are a total 386,116 Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine reservists all over the country, among them former Vice President Jejomar C. Binay, who is a Marines reserve colonel, and former Interior Secretary Rafael Alunan III, who is an Army reserve colonel.
The Armed Forces Reserve Force conducts regular assemblies to physically account, inspect, organize and update the individual records of each reservist and ready-reserve unit
Arevalo said the simultaneous assembly is in compliance with Section 49 of Republic Act 7077, which states that: All reservists, particularly those belonging to the ready and standby reserves, shall be accounted for, their records and status updated and present whereabouts ascertained in order to ensure their readiness to the call to duty.